1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bar code symbol reading devices that provide data to one or more host systems (for example, personal computers, point-of-sale (POS) stations, inventory management systems, document tracking systems, package tracking (and routing and delivery) systems, other retail solutions (such as price look-up kiosks), etc.)
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Bar code symbols have become widely used in many environments such as, for example, as a form of data input to personal computers, point-of-sale (POS) stations, inventory management systems, document tracking system, package tracking (and routing and delivery) systems, other retail solutions (such as price look-up kiosks), a diverse range of data acquisition and control applications, etc.). To meet the growing demands of this technological innovation, bar code symbol readers of various types have been developed for reading bar code symbols and producing symbol character data for use as input in such automated data processing systems.
In general, it is desirable to enable a bar code symbol reading device to interface to a variety of different host devices. This feature allows the bar code symbol reading device to be used in a variety of applications that utilize such different host devices. Moreover, it is desirable to make the configuration of such an interface automatic with minimal human involvement.
Heretofore, several mechanisms for interfacing bar code symbol reading devices to host systems have been proposed.
Many commercially available bar code symbol reading devices distribute configuration manuals (or guides) that include bar code labels for different device-host configurations (and parameters). The bar code labels encode data, which is read by the bar code scanning device and used in an internal configuration routine to select and configure the interface between the bar code scanning device and the host system. Whenever the user desires to use the scanning device with a different host system, the user must locate the appropriate guide/label and read the data encoded by the label, which may be problematic in the event that the user has misplaced (or lost) the guide/label or an error occurs in the label reading operation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,604, a system is disclosed which implements a bar code scanning device which is configured to accept any of a plurality of differently configured interface boards in its handle, wherein each type of interface board is specially adapted to mate with an associated host device. The decoder in the scanner polls the interface board upon power-up and reads an identification code from the particular interface board which the user has inserted. The identification code is used by the decoder to access configuration and formatting data from an on-board memory in order to transmit data to the interface board and ultimately to the host device in the required manner. This requires a user to have to swap electrical boards inside the scanner device whenever he desires to use the scanner with a different host device, which is unwieldy and potentially damaging to the boards due to electrostatic discharge (ESD) phenomena.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,415, a system is disclosed which implements a bar code scanning device that formats bar code symbol character data into a specific SDCI data format. An interface cable, which is specific to a given type of host device, includes a host protocol and translation means that configures the bar code symbol data in the SDCI format into a format required by the given type of host device and transmits such data to the host device. Note that each different type of host device will require the use of a differently configured interface cable in order to enable communication between the bar code scanning device and host device, thus greatly increasing the cost of the interface cables themselves. Moreover, whenever the user desires to use the scanning device with a different host system, the user must locate (or purchase) the appropriate interface cable, which may be problematic and costly in the event that the user has misplaced (or lost) the required interface cable.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,249, a system is disclosed which provides different connecting cables and labels for different bar code scanning devices/host system pairs. The labels are bar code labels (or RFID tags) that encode data which is read by the bar code scanning device and used in an internal configuration routine to configure the parameters of the interface between the bar code scanning device and the host system, such as baud rate, data format settings, hardware and software handshaking, UPC data format, etc.). Whenever the user desires to use the scanning device with a different host system, the user must locate (or purchase) the appropriate interface cable/label and read the data encoded by the label, which may be problematic in the event that the user has misplaced (or lost) the label for the cable or an error occurs in the label reading operation.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for a bar code reading device with an improved communication interface that enable the bar code symbol reading device to interface to a variety of different host devices in an automatic and error free manner with minimal human involvement.